I wonder if your memory is an outlier? If I play a game, read a book, or watch a movie within a year or two I remember the edges and themes but I’ll forget the details of the plot.
Myst is an exception which is probably a testament to how impactful it was to 11 year old me, but I’ve played Riven twice and I could barely tell you what it is about. If I play it again, I’ll start getting my memory jogged and it won’t completely be like starting from scratch but pretty close to it.
Dementia runs in my family so I am always paranoid about lapses in my memory (I’m 40). When I talk to others I don’t seem to be alone.
> Even in the late 1990s, there was the palpable sense that Riven represented the end of an era, that even Cyan would not be able to catch lightning in a bottle a third time with yet another cerebral, contemplative, zeitgeist-stamping single-player puzzle game. Both Richard Vander Wende and Robyn Miller quit the company as soon as the obligatory rounds of promotional interviews had been completed
I was an ultra-tourist. I just bought the game and a cheat book and blew through it with my mom in the fashion of watching a movie.
Because that is about as much time as I want to sink into any escapist stuff.
The other point is that I truly admire anyone ejecting at the top of their game, rather than and endless stream of weaker derivatives.
Hacker Cinema
3 comments on Hacker News
I wonder if your memory is an outlier? If I play a game, read a book, or watch a movie within a year or two I remember the edges and themes but I’ll forget the details of the plot.
Myst is an exception which is probably a testament to how impactful it was to 11 year old me, but I’ve played Riven twice and I could barely tell you what it is about. If I play it again, I’ll start getting my memory jogged and it won’t completely be like starting from scratch but pretty close to it.
Dementia runs in my family so I am always paranoid about lapses in my memory (I’m 40). When I talk to others I don’t seem to be alone.
Which one of us is the norm?
> Even in the late 1990s, there was the palpable sense that Riven represented the end of an era, that even Cyan would not be able to catch lightning in a bottle a third time with yet another cerebral, contemplative, zeitgeist-stamping single-player puzzle game. Both Richard Vander Wende and Robyn Miller quit the company as soon as the obligatory rounds of promotional interviews had been completed
I was an ultra-tourist. I just bought the game and a cheat book and blew through it with my mom in the fashion of watching a movie.
Because that is about as much time as I want to sink into any escapist stuff.
The other point is that I truly admire anyone ejecting at the top of their game, rather than and endless stream of weaker derivatives.
Such a great documentary. Really recommend it to anyone considering. Myst / Riven were both awesome games.